Written Answers Thursday 24 August 2006

Scottish Executive

Bankruptcy

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many and what proportion of people aged between 16 and 24 declared themselves bankrupt in each year since 1997.

Hugh Henry: The Accountant in Bankruptcy does not hold records of sequestrations by age. However, the Accountant in Bankruptcy undertook an exercise to extract what data could be retrieved manually.

  The data available covers the period 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2006. During that period there were 11,354 awards of sequestration on debtor petitions. Of those, 8,965 contained details of the debtor’s date of birth (79%). Of those there were 563 cases in which the debtor was aged 16 to 24 at the date of sequestration (6.3% of cases recording a date of birth, 5.0% of all cases). The youngest debtor was 18 years old at the date of sequestration.

  The following table breaks these down by financial year. For reference, it includes published figures on total insolvencies for the financial years 2000-01 to 2004-05. Figures for 2005-06 are included but these have not yet been published by the Accountant, therefore when final published figures are available there may be some small variance.

  

 Year
 Number of Debtor Petitions for 
16-24 Year Olds
 Total Number of Debtor Petitions
 Percentage of Petitions for 
16-24 Year Old Debtors


 2000-01
 112
 1,801
 6.2


 2001-02
 108
 2,129
 5.1


 2002-03
 100
 1,797
 5.5


 2003-04
 58
 1,714
 3.4


 2004-05
 63
 1,655
 3.8


 2005-06
 122
 2,258
 5.4


 Total
 563
 11,354
 -

Environment

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it plans to review the water abstraction licence for the River Garry under the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 and what the process will be for this review.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) will undertake a prioritised review of authorisations under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 starting in late 2006. It is an operational matter for SEPA to determine how to undertake these reviews.

Environment

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what routine and non-routine dredging operations take place in the Firth of Forth; which public authority is responsible for consenting to these operations, and how proposals for such operations are made available for public comment.

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what public consultation is required in relation to (a) dredging operations in the Firth of Forth and (b) the disposal of dredging resulting from such operations.

Rhona Brankin: Forth Ports plc, as statutory harbour authority under the Forth Ports Authority Order Confirmation Act 1969, is the main organisation carrying out dredging operations in the Firth of Forth. In certain cases, e.g. when dredging within 50 yards of a bridge, pipe, submarine cable etc, Forth Ports is obliged to provide interested organisations with no less than 28 days written notice of its intention to do so. If such operations involve the sea disposal of dredge material then a licence is also required under Part II of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 (Deposits in the Sea) (FEPA). Fisheries Research Services, Marine Laboratory at Aberdeen (FRS) acts as the FEPA licensing authority on behalf of the Scottish ministers. While there is no requirement for public consultation under FEPA, FRS routinely consults Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and local fishermen via the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency about all applications received.

  Information is not held centrally on the full range of dredging operations undertaken. Depending on the nature of the method used, some dredging operations may not fall under FEPA and so will not come to the attention of FRS. Such operations are however likely to be very localised and small in scale.

  Over the past three years there have been 10 routine (maintenance dredging) and two non-routine (capital dredging) licensed operations involving the sea disposal of dredge material within the Firth of Forth. FEPA sea disposal licences are usually issued for a period of one calendar year. Details of dredge material disposal operations within the Firth of Forth that have been licensed over the past three years are given in the following table:

  

 Starting Date of Licence
Licensee/Applicant 
(if Different)
 Place of Production
 Licensed -Actual Tonnage
 Nature of Dredge Spoil
 Disposal Site Name


 01-08-2003
Buchanan Laird Ltd / Forth Ports
 Granton Harbour
311,383-91585
 Capital dredgings
 Oxcars


 10-10-2003
 Forth Ports 
 Grangemouth
1,150,000-850,309
 Maintenance dredgings
 Bo’ness


 01-02-2004
 Forth Ports 
 Leith
531,750-47,576
 Maintenance dredgings
 Narrow Deep


 17-05-2004
 Forth Ports 
 Rosyth
130,000-114,297
 Maintenance dredgings
 Oxcars 


 17-08-2004
 Fife Council
 Anstruther
42,638-29,434
 Maintenance dredgings
 Anstruther


 10-10-2004
 Forth Ports 
 Grangemouth
1,150,000-1,139,967
 Maintenance dredgings
 Bo’ness


 01-05-2005
 Forth Ports 
 Leith
425,400-Nil
 Maintenance dredgings
 Narrow Deep


 10-10-2005
 Forth Ports plc
 Grangemouth
1,150,000-250,510
 Maintenance dredgings
 Bo’ness


 01-05-2005
Buchanan Laird Ltd/Forth Ports
 Granton
100,000-86,638
 Capital dredgings
 Oxcars 


 17-05-2005
 Forth Ports 
 Rosyth
260,000-32,988
 Maintenance dredgings
 Oxcars 


 28-02-2006
 Briggs Marine/ RNAD Crombie
 Crombie
3,700-current licence
 Maintenance dredgings
 Blae Rock 


 01-04-2006
 Royal Forth Yacht Club
 Granton
9,999-current licence
 Maintenance dredgings
 Oxcars 



  In addition, following extensive consultation with interested stakeholders, the Crown Estate granted Westminster Gravels Ltd a 10 year Aggregate Production Licence commencing in January 2001 for the extraction of up to 6,000,000 cubic metres of aggregates from within the "Middle Bank" area of the Firth of Forth. The only material extracted under this licence to date was in early November 2005 when 129,387 tonnes was removed in order to supply infill material for the Leith Western Dock Reclamation Project.

Environment

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether dredging operations in the Firth of Forth are subject to review under regulation 50 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats &c.) Regulations 1994 and, if not, what regulation requires the assessment of the impact of these operations on European wildlife sites in the area.

Rhona Brankin: Dredging operations in the Firth of Forth are not subject to review under the Conservation (Natural Habitats &c) Regulations 1994. As a matter of law, only plans or projects covered by regulations 53 – 85 of the Regulations are subject to the specific obligations at regulation 50. However, regulation 3(4) of those Regulations requires every competent authority, in the exercise of its functions, to have regard to the requirements of the Habitats Directive (92/42/EEC) so far as they may be affected by those functions. Competent authorities are therefore obliged to comply with the procedures and requirements specified in Article 6 of the Directive, whether or not they are also bound by other obligations.

  Accordingly no competent authority may agree to a plan or project unless it has ascertained that (a) the plan or project will have no significant effect on a European site, or that (b) the integrity of the site will not be adversely affected, or that (c) site integrity will be adversely affected but that there is no alternative solution and the plan or project must be carried out for imperative reasons of overriding public interest. This legal obligation, and the associated procedural requirements, apply irrespective of whether the competent authority is operating under Regulation 3(4) or Regulations 53A to 85.

Environment

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has been, or will be, consulted about the impact of dredging operations in the Firth of Forth and what advice SNH has given on the impact of these operations on European wildlife sites in the area.

Rhona Brankin: Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is not required under legislation to be consulted on routine dredging operations in the Firth of Forth. However, SNH is consulted annually on the routine disposal of dredged material from operations which require a Sea Disposal Licence under Part II of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985.

  Advice from SNH is that current routine dredging operations are unlikely to be having a significant effect on the Natura sites within the Firth of Forth because when the sites were designated the conservation status of the sites was of a quality to merit designation even though these dredging operations had been taking place routinely for some time before designation and also due to the fact that routine dredging operations take place in a few specific localities.

Historic Events

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-10945 by Cathy Jamieson on 20 October 2004, what progress has been made towards recognising the bravery and historic importance of the Scottish women of the suffrage movement.

Malcolm Chisholm: After considering the options, ministers decided to commission a sculpture which would mark not only the contribution of Scottish women of suffrage but of all Scottish women - past, present and future - in getting the vote for women and advancing democracy.

  I announced the name of the successful artist on 8 March 2006 at an evening event in the Scottish Parliament, which took place against the backdrop of a small Executive-funded exhibition that included suffragette memorabilia and a large reproduction of a suffragette banner.

  Further details about the sculpture, including developing plans for the unveiling in December 2006, can be found on the following Executive website page: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/18500/comsculp.

Young Offenders

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-26585 by Cathy Jamieson on 3 June 2006, what the total cost was of employing PA Consulting from April 2004 to May 2006.

Hugh Henry: The total cost to the Scottish Executive of employing PA Consulting Group between April 2004 and May 2006 to provide support and advice to local and national partners on youth justice issues was £1,744,256.31.

Young Offenders

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many restriction of liberty orders for under 16-year-olds have been (a) applied for and (b) granted in each year since their introduction, broken down by local authority area.

Hugh Henry: Provisions included in the Anti Social Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004 for electronic monitoring of offenders under 16 years of age who are dealt with by the court system commenced in April 2005. A total of three Restriction of Liberty Orders have been imposed on under 16-year-olds since the provisions commenced. Of these, two were imposed by Glasgow Sheriff Court and one by Dundee Sheriff Court. Restriction of Liberty Orders for under 16-year-olds are a court sentence and a direct alternative to custody. They cannot be made by application or recommendation.